Pinpricks of Light
by Blood-Black Rose
Summary: Erik’s world has become blacker then he ever thought possible, after hearing the news. Now the only way back to sanity are three teenagers…


Hey. It's amazing. Someone's reading this! Wow. Thank you. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Well, like I said, thanks for coming. Oh, and don't worry. I know there isn't much Phantom in the beginning, but there will be more later, just keep reading. This is, after all, a Phantom of the Opera fanfic.  
  
If anyone can think of a better title, PLEASE let me know.  
  
Have fun!  
  
Full Summary: A mere month after Christine had left, Erik thought nothing could turn his world blacker, but after hearing the terrible news, it does. He's losing his mind and the only thing to bring him back from the steps of insanity and death are three teenagers.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own the Phantom of the Opera, nor do I own Animorphs. They belong to Gaston Leroux and K. A. Applegate ((seeing as this /is/ the Phantom of the Opera area, I don't think I need to elaborate about who owns which)).  
  
Don't worry, you don't have to know Animorphs to read this. Everything'll be explained in a few chapters or so.  
  
Also, I forgot Marco's step-mothers maiden name. Sorry. If you know it, let me know.  
  
I do not own Amber. Amber is my sisters' (AngelMask22) friend's, Abigail (PhantomessAbigail).  
  
YEAR: 1999  
  
COUNTY: The United States of America  
  
STATE: Unknown  
  
"Amber, Amber, Amber. How many times do I have to tell you? You can't-"  
  
"Hide in the bathrooms, I know. I got stuck." Amber said, handing her brother Marco the controller.  
  
"Exactly. You don't want to go near them. You'll get killed." Marco said as he reset the game.  
  
"Just face it, Time Splitters 2 is just not my game. Bloody Roar 3 and any racing game, and I'll beat you. But this? I mean, you shoot 'em and they don't die. It's not fair."  
  
"Yeah, I know. But their zombies with green fire, what can you expect?"  
  
"All our teammates are zombies, too, but they die."  
  
Marco thought about that for a moment.  
  
"You know what? You're right. That makes no sense to me, either." He turned off the game and the TV.  
  
"Amber! Marco!" came their step-mothers voice from downstairs, "Are you doing your homework?"  
  
"Yes, Nora!" Amber and Marco answered at the same time. Amber rolled her eyes.  
  
"Out of all the people Dad could marry, he had to pick our math teacher."  
  
"And her toy poodle. I mean, I'm pretty sure that poodle sold her soul to the devil to look better. She is evil incarnate."  
  
"You're preaching to the choir, here, Marco. She bit my ankle yesterday, remember?"  
  
"Oh, yeah."  
  
Ding-dong!  
  
The doorbell.  
  
"I got it!" Amber shouted as she stood up and ran down stairs (nearly tripping). She ran to the door and opened it.  
  
"Cassie! Good, you're here. Come on up, Marco and I were just-uh, doing homework."  
  
"Alright." Cassie smiled and walked inside.  
  
"Hello, Cassie." Nora said, smiling as she walked into the entry hall.  
  
"Oh, Hello, Miss Robinette-oh, I mean-"  
  
"It's alright, Cassie." Nora said, smiling and laughing.  
  
"Bark!"  
  
Amber ran and stood on the nearest chair as a white poodle ran into the room.  
  
"Bark, bark, bark, bark, bark!"  
  
"Euclid! Sush!" Nora told the dog, who had jumped up on Cassie, barking.  
  
"Oh, hi there, Euclid." Cassie said, smiling, and she bent down a little to pat the poodle on the head.  
  
"No, don't! She'll bite your hand off!" Amber warned.  
  
"Amber! You know Euclid wouldn't do such a thing! You're being ridiculous." Nora scholded.  
  
Euclid stopped barking. Amber stared at Cassie in shock.  
  
"You know animals love me." Cassie reminded her.  
  
"I know. I just didn't think monsters counted as 'animals'."  
  
"Amber!"  
  
"Sorry, Nora!"  
  
"Hey!" came Marco's voice from upstairs. "Are you coming up or what?"  
  
"Oh! Right." Cassie said, smiled at Euclid and Nora, and then started upstairs. Amber jumped off the chair onto the lowest step and ran up.  
  
Once back inside Marco's room, Amber sat back next to Marco, and then Cassie sat inbetween them, creating a circle.  
  
"We have a problem." Cassie said, whispering.  
  
"Oh, no, really? You mean you aren't here for a study party?" Marco said sarcasticly.  
  
"Marco? Can you be serious for /one moment/?" Amber asked, hitting him in the shoulder.  
  
"Ouch! No, I can't, you know that."  
  
"Anyway, Cassie, what is it?" Amber asked.  
  
Cassie bit her lip. "It's a big problem. Since you two couldn't make it to the meeting, Jake sent me to let you know."  
  
"Yes, yes, what is it?"  
  
"Calm down, Amber, I'm getting there. Apparently Visser One is coming back to Earth."  
  
Marco and Amber glanced at each other. Visser One?  
  
"Why?" Amber asked slowly.  
  
"Because apparently Visser Three thought she may have information about the 'Andalite bandits'."  
  
"Yeah, well, figures. The last time we showed up was rather convient for her." Amber said.  
  
"We don't know all the details yet, but it seems he plans on ambushing her. He already set up mutiny in her ranks. He wants to take her, torture her, and get the information that way."  
  
There was a long strech of silence, where the only sounds were the neighborhood kids playing baseball outside, birds singing, and Nora cooking dinner downstairs. After about a full minute of silence, Marco broke the silence.  
  
"Well, this stinks like week-old raw beef."  
  
Amber looked at him.  
  
"You don't even know what that smells like."  
  
"Point is?"  
  
"Whatever."  
  
"So, our plans are to go down to the Yeerk pool and get her." Cassie told them.  
  
"Wonderful. I still have nightmares about that place." Said Amber.  
  
"Yeah, well, so do I." Marco said.  
  
"We all do, even Ax I suppose. But we have to do it."  
  
"I know, I know." Amber said, yawning.  
  
Marco was a High School Freshman. He was Hispanic with darker brown hair and lighter brown eyes, and shorter then he liked. He had rather short hair, and thought he was much cuter then he really was. He loved to make jokes, but when it came down to it he was the one who could see anything clearly, from point A to point B.  
  
Amber took to their fathers side, so she was mostly white. She also had brown hair (a little lighter then Marcos, down to the middle of her shoulder blades) and brown eyes (a little darker then Marcos). But she was a few inches taller then Marco. She was the same age as Marco, just barely. She was in gymnastics with her friend Rachel, and also in ballet and singing, of which she paid partly for by working at a local family- owned diner. She also took drama in school, but her favorite class was Classic Literature. However, one of her greatest skills were being able to find a flaw in any plan, and find the way to fix it.  
  
Cassie was also the same age, black with short black hair and dark eyes. She often wore slightly dirty clothes, sometimes with bird poop on her jeans, because both her parents were vets and they had a Wildlife Rehabitation center in their barn, and her job was to go in there and take care of the animals, which she loved doing. Marco was always calling her a 'Tree Hugger', but she also had a keen sense of others' feelings, and was the peacemaker among their little group.  
  
"Anyway, Cassie, are you staying for dinner?" Marco asked.  
  
"Yeah, please say you are. Nora and Dad are going to end up talking about math being the universal language again. I don't think we can face 'em alone anymore."  
  
"Sure. Just let me call my parents and ask."  
  
~*~*~FLASH~*~*~  
  
"Ow! I think I'm going to go blind." Amber said.  
  
"What was that?" Cassie asked no one in particular.  
  
"Uh- guys? I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." Marco said. They looked around.  
  
"Okay. I'm thinking the Ellimist may have something to do with this." Cassie said.  
  
They were certainly not home anymore.  
  
"You think? We're in the middle of a freakin' forest!" Marco shouted.  
  
((((((((((((((((Meanwhile))))))))))))))))  
  
YEAR: 1881  
  
PLACE: France  
  
CITY: Paris  
  
He couldn't move anymore. He didn't want to move anymore. And he had thought it could not get any worse, after Christine leaving. He had wanted to die. His world had seemed blacker then ever, and he was certain it could never become any worse.  
  
How wrong he was! His house seemed darker then ever, his life more horrible my the seconds that ticked by.  
  
He could not remain sane (or at least as sane as he was) for long. He had already torn apart his house (all if not for /her/ room, as well as the Torture Chamber), and now he lay sprawled across the floor in agony. Not so much physical agony, though he could feel the pain there, as well. His heart had been torn apart into a thousand pieces more then it had been.  
  
Dead! It wasn't possible. How could it be possible? She could not be dead! SHE COULD NOT!  
  
He felt a moan escape his throat. He wanted to cry, he wanted to, but just didn't have the energy to do so.  
  
Where was his mask? He couldn't remember. Something had happened to it. Perhaps he had smashed it into a million tiny pieces, to represent his heart.  
  
He tried to cry again, but it didn't work. So he broke into dry sobs. There wasn't even anyone he could kill for revenge, is had been an accident, but she was dead all the same. And her death could not have been easy, being trapped underneath part of the roof that had callopsed during the earthquake, it slowly suffocating the life out of her, slowly crushing her.  
  
Dead! His one, true love, dead! The woman he would have done anything for! He would have died a million slow deaths to save her, but it was too late. Too late...  
  
Darkness, utter blackness closed in around him, and he only wished to surrender himself to it, to join her in death.  
  
Hours, or so it seemed, slowly crawled by, but he was not allowed to die. So he did the only thing he could think of. He took the largest, sharpest piece of glass and first stabbed it through his wrist, then, after moaning in pain, raised the glass to his neck, and he slit his own throat.  
  
And only then did the darkness welcome him.  
  
But it would not last long. Minutes past, and he awoke again, the glass still stained with his blood, feet away. But his wrist and neck had healed.  
  
/What?/ he wondered. How was it possible? Was God denying him death now?  
  
He swore aloud. Would he always be denied final rest?  
  
He heard something. A shout. A male child, coming from...coming from...  
  
The torture chamber.  
  
He was more then half tempted to leave him there. Why should Erik care? But he knew he could never leave a child to die. So he stood, slowly, and walked into Christine's room, where he may be able to see his 'guest'.  
  
As Erik looked through the window, he realized that not only did he have one guest, but three. One teenage boy, two teenage girls. The girls were- oddly enough- wearing pants. All of their pants were made of a strange sort of material.  
  
He didn't bother trying to figure out what it was. He simply listened.  
  
"Well, actrully, Cassie, I think the Ellimist would tell us something. He usually does. Not that it helps much, mind you." Said the girl with brown hair.  
  
"Okay, maybe we ought to figure this out. We're in the middle of a forest, right?" The boy asked.  
  
"Well, Marco, we might not be in the middle. We're just surrounded by trees, doesn't mean we're far from the edge." The girl with brown hair said.  
  
"Maybe one of us should morph then fly up and see if we can find the way out." Said the black girl, 'Cassie'.  
  
//Morph?//  
  
"Alright, I'll do it." Said the girl with brown hair.  
  
"Good for you, Amber."  
  
"Shut up, Marco."  
  
She stood there for a moment, but nothing happened.  
  
"What's taking you, Amber?" Marco asked.  
  
"Guys, I can't- I can't morph!"  
  
"What?" Marco asked. There was silence for a moment. "Neither can I!" he shouted.  
  
"Nor I." Cassie said.  
  
"This is just too weird." Amber said, sitting down.  
  
"Agreed. But, hey, this means no math test tomarow." Marco said, also sitting down.  
  
"Maybe. Unless, of course, we end up back home at the same time we left." Cassie said, also sitting.  
  
"Hey, you think this might be that Sario Rip thing?" Amber asked.  
  
"Maybe." Both Cassie and Marco answered.  
  
It was time to let them out, or at least give away his presence.  
  
He sighed. He had to play at being a Phantom again.  
  
"And what are /you/ doing in the Phantoms domain?!" he shouted.  
  
They all gasped.  
  
"Uhhh-who're you?" Amber asked.  
  
"And what Phantom?" Marco added. Cassie remained silent.  
  
Erik sighed again. They weren't of the Opera, then.  
  
"/I'm/ the Phantom! Now explain what you are doing here!"  
  
Marco, Cassie and Amber looked at each other.  
  
"This just may be a biiiig problem." Marco said.  
  
I hope you enjoyed it. I know, it's not as great as I had hoped, but maybe the next chapter will be better. Please review! 


End file.
